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/ 3 October 2005

AG drills into R6bn Sasol deal

Auditor General Shauket Fakie has called for documents that deal with the government’s financial arrangements with Sasol. The fuel-from-coal giant, on which taxpayer support was lavished in the past, has been at the centre of controversy as oil prices have jumped dramatically in recent months and continued to trade at these much higher levels.

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/ 3 October 2005

Absa announces new home-loan product

Absa has introduced a new home-loan product that makes it possible for almost anyone to own a home of their own. MyHome gives individuals or couples with joint monthly incomes of between R1 500 and and R7 500 access to an affordable 100% mortgage bond that can also include a five-year fixed-rate option.

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/ 3 October 2005

Cocking a snoek at poverty

As far as I can remember from second and third-hand conversations here and there there’s a very famous bit in the Bible where it say that this fellow Jesus came upon a group of poverty-stricken-looking guys with shabby clothes and ragged beards looking lost and forlorn by the Sea of Galilee.

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/ 3 October 2005

Côte d’Ivoire battles for peace

As African leaders gear up for two successive summits to salvage peace efforts in Côte d’Ivoire, the country’s President, Laurent Gbagbo, has ruled out any mediation role for his fellow West African leaders. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States has invited heads of state from across the region to the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

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/ 3 October 2005

Katrina: Relief contracts under investigation

Billions of dollars of reconstruction contracts awarded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are being investigated amid concerns of cronyism and abuse. More than 80% of the ,5 -billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were awarded without bidding or with only limited competition.

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/ 3 October 2005

A waste of R16-billion?

The political administration of the country’s nine provinces will cost the taxpayer R16-billion by the end of this financial year, about 8% of the total transfer from national government. Provincial ministers, their bodyguards and private secretaries will soak up R500-million in remuneration alone.

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/ 3 October 2005

Finding your niche

The flood of new titles into the magazine space may well be filling what appear to our biggest publishers to be obvious gaps. These guys don’t skimp on research and they’re past masters at the art of the compelling media argument.

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/ 3 October 2005

A victory on paper

Pouring concrete over an arms dump of Kalashnikovs hidden in a bog is one thing, laying to rest ingrained unionist suspicions is another. As the Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey acknowledged recently, everyone knows General de Chastelain won’t get every single republican gun and it would be easy for the Provos to go out and restock their arsenal tomorrow.

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/ 3 October 2005

Africans must prevent failed states

On October 11, Liberians will have another opportunity, the second in eight years, to elect a government to steer their country back on the road of reconstruction after more than a decade of conflict. The key difference is that, for once, voters will not be directly hounded by the image nor haunted by the memory of a dominant strongman seeking their votes.